Whoosh. A neon green blur traverses through the atmosphere, a beacon of victory to come. A racket swings, bouncing the ball back over the net. This continues for hours at a time, the two opponents locked in a fight for the chance to take home the gold.
Emma Wang (9) recently participated in the Louisville Springhurst New Year’s Tennis Competition. Along with her fellow teammates on the White Station High School girl’s tennis team, she traveled to Kentucky in hopes of securing a victory at the national tournament. Wang played in the 16th division, meaning that she was up against much older girls on the court. The young athlete won match after match in her division and was able to make it to the quarterfinals as the last representative from her team.
“My match that I won in the quarterfinals — it was against the second seat of that tournament, which means they were the second-best player,” Wang said. “And they’re ranked really highly nationally … it took me four hours to beat them … I think that was my accomplishment that I was really proud of during this tournament.”
Although Wang was a bit disappointed at placing third in her division, she took pride in her achievement and used it as motivation to improve and strive for higher goals.
“I think it’s best to just move on from my loss, but also think about why I lost that one match that I did,” Wang said. “I do believe that I could’ve won this tournament, but I was maybe too tired or wasn’t focused enough in that one match I lost. [My goal is] just to be happy that I got third place, but know that there’s … much more to work on.”
Wang first started playing tennis around her sixth grade year during the COVID-19 lockdown. With a nudge from her mom, she was able to begin her tennis journey.
“At home, I was doing nothing and I was being really lazy, and my mom kept getting mad at me,” Wang said. “And she thought that on tennis courts there was social distancing since everyone is super far away from each other, so she was like ‘Go play tennis so you can get your athleticism up.’ After that, I just kicked off, I guess.”
To prepare for the Louisville competition, Wang dedicated time to physical training and adopted habits that would increase her chances of success. Despite her nerves, she remained consistent in hopes of a victory that would all be worth it.
“I practice every single day for tennis,” Wang said. “I’m a really consistent tennis player. I’m not that strong, so I like to play a lot on the ball machine to help my consistency. I also like to sleep a lot, and usually when people play in tournaments they wake up like two-three hours before their matches, but I only wake up one hour [before] and I’m always rushing to get to the match. So, I think sleep is really important.”
One of the main reasons that Wang put so much effort into her training was to prove herself and add an accomplishment to her tennis life. She especially wanted to make her family proud.
“It helped my parents realize that I have some talent in this sport … It proved to them that they shouldn’t just give up on me,” Wang said. “After I did [well] in this tournament I think it proved to them that they should support me and help me work on my tennis skills.”
After her feat at the Louisville tennis competition, Wang is considering tennis in her future. Since she is a high school freshman, she still has time to make a final decision, but for now, she has expressed her desire to carry on playing tennis.
“I think I’m definitely going to continue tennis through high school and hopefully college. I wanna get to a D2 college level, I hope,” Wang said. “But not professionally … having a [different] job is a lot more safe.”
With her experience in the Louisville competition, Wang learned to set realistic expectations while still placing trust in her own abilities and desire to win. She hopes to make it to even bigger tennis tournaments later on in high school and continue doing what she loves.
“I don’t really want to set really high expectations for myself because otherwise if I don’t meet those expectations I’m going to be really sad and mad,” Wang said. “I think before going into a tournament, the mindset is the most important … I think in the moment, I just need to stay calm and focus on what I can do to actually win the match … I’m pretty excited [about next season], I just hope I play well.”
